Player Activity

What Is Activity and How Is It Triggered

Activity is an indicator (*) shown on a specific planet or moon.

The activation of "Activity on" is triggered by two main categories of events:

1. Player Actions:

Logging in: Triggers activity on the planet/moon on which the player logs in.
Clicking on menus: Clicking almost any menu (overview, fleet, defense, research, etc.) triggers activity on the currently selected planet or moon.
Clicking on the empire menu: Generates activity on every planet.
Refreshing the page: Refreshes activity on the active planet/moon.
Using the sensor phalanx: Triggers activity on the moon from which the phalanx was scanned, but it does not generate activity on the scanned target planet.

2. Game Events

Fleet arrival: Any fleet that arrives at a planet or moon (yours, an ally's, or an opponent's) triggers activity there, with the exception of hold missions.
Espionage: An enemy espionage probe arriving at a planet or moon triggers activity there.
Fleet return: A fleet returning to its point of origin triggers activity upon landing.
Building completion: When buildings are in the build queue, the game updates upon completion.

The Asterisk (*) and Activity Timers

When you open the galaxy screen, activity is shown directly next to the image of the planet or moon. The indicators follow a strict timeline based on the most recently triggered event:

Indicator	Time Since Last Activity	Meaning
Asterisk (*)	0 to 15 minutes	The most recent activity happened only a short time ago.
Number (15 - 59)	15 to 59 minutes	Shows the exact number of minutes elapsed since the last activity trigger.
No indicator	60+ minutes	No activity has occurred on this particular planet or moon for at least a full hour.

What Does It Mean When No Activity Is Shown?

If no activity indicator is shown for a planet or moon, it simply means that no clicks have occurred on that particular planet/moon in the last 60 minutes and no fleets have landed there.

However, caution is warranted: No activity does not necessarily mean the player is offline. Since activity is location-bound, a player could be online, actively building ships and sending fleets from "Planet A", while "Planet B" appears completely dead with no activity at all. Advanced players often sit on a moon without clicking to lure attackers, or they only refresh a single planet to hide the fact that they're online.

Is the Galaxy View the Only Place to See Activity?

Friends list: If the player is on your friends list, you can see their entire account activity.
Statistics page: Even though no activity star is shown there, players tracking the highscores can see whether a player's points are updating. This is an additional way to check whether a player who "appears inactive" is actually online and spending resources.

Extended Inactivity

Players are marked as inactive if they remain inactive for the following periods:

more than 7 days; this is shown by an (i) next to the player's name
more than 28 days; this is shown by an (I) next to the player's name
By default, an account is deleted after 42 days, though this can vary depending on the universe's settings.

At the start of the inactivity phase, newbie protection and strong-player status are lifted.